Rewiring a PDA to power a larger LCD?

03-17-2004, 09:14 PM

Possible? I'm an electronics moron. I've tried searching on this topic to no avail, though I did see lots of topics about using a PDA to remote control a carputer. I currently use my Axim with Tom Tom Navigator, which rocks for GPS. You can even watch movies on it just fine. It's got WIFI and easily connects to the car's power. But the screen is too small and the PDA storage too tiny to be practical.

Sooo...I was wondering if anyone had tried taking the guts of, say, a high-end iPaq with a blown LCD, and reconnecting it to a 5, 8 or 10-inch touchscreen TFT LCD, then set it to use dotPixel to run Windows Mobile at a non-standard resolution. Package it up into a slim carputer/tablet type thing.

The latest PDAs have some pretty powerful software, and flash media is really coming down. Wondering if the guts of a PDA could be used for a basic larger-screen carputer.

Hmm, Interesting concept. It almost sounds feasible. However, not to rain on your parade, but I think a small PC is likely to give you more power and have more potential for expansion for the same price or less.

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Hmm, Interesting concept. It almost sounds feasible. However, not to rain on your parade, but I think a small PC is likely to give you more power and have more potential for expansion for the same price or less.

However, definitely not with the same convenience. Having to wire everything into your car takes a lot of time, and fixing a computer into your car does as well. This could be a cheaper and easier alternative for his needs.

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Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see this work. It would be reall cool. Instant power up might be the holy grail of automotive computing. I've always thought that you're not using a device to its full potential unless you are making it do things it wasn't originally intended to do. I really do hope somebody with some practical experience in this area can shed some light on this.

That being said, mounting a small form factor board and power supply in a car may take time, but I would imagine that figuring out how to make a PDA and a separate LCD touch screen play nice together would too. Then you'd still have to power it and mount it in the car. With regular PC parts, you're working with parts that were meant to work together. You can also take advantage of PCI and USB devices (not to mention hard drives.) I'm sure that if you shop around you will be able to find a small form factor mobo and the related components to make it work for as much or less than a comparable pocket PC.

Jeez, I must sound like a wet blanket.

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I'm only looking for MP3, Wifi, GPS, and occasional browsing or email if needed. No need for games or movies, really. So, I'm trying to come up with the cheapest, fastest way. I'm thinking of something like a kneeboard tablet that stows beside my seat.

Well, there's tons of broke iPaqs on Ebay. I think I'll flounder around for a while Was just wondering if anyone else had tried this. The instant on and low-power are really interesting to me over wiring a full PC into the car.

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have you taken one apart yet ? just wondering if theres a part number on the rear of the screens. It might be worth trying to see if its mentioned on this list .. If it is, then I would of thought any tft from the list with it would be compatable, you would prob need to seperate inverter powered by a external psu..